Group - Technology Report: Don't get caught in the ink storm

It has developed a system called i-Check whereby printers can implement a proven efficiency project that best fits their business and monitor the impact that project has via a website that can be accessed remotely from any computer. The website carries details of the project, its aims and its reasoning, along with ongoing data on how it is progressing.Managing director David Ward explains that the project began with the company looking back over its history of helping clients with efficiency drives and picking out the most successful for a portfolio of the projects, reducing blanket usage for example or moving to alcohol-free processes. Clients could then look through this portfolio and select which measures best suited them."We looked at the situation of rising costs and decided that there were lots of opportunities within the pressroom where we could save," he says. "And the fact the i-Check is transparent proves it is not just words: we have quantifiable and measured results to prove that the savings are genuine."Another wayThat’s why some in the digital market have opted to take the option of switching to cheaper inks and starting on a whole new staircase altogether – one that starts at a much lower price point so is arguably a more long-term option. Some claim the OEM inks come at a high price because that is where the kit manufacturer makes its money – cheap kit to lock the client in, expensive consumables to bring in the cash. A third-party supplier does not have the same business model and so can undercut the OEM price.Book printer Butler, Tanner & Dennis (BT&D) certainly found this to be the case for its Epson 7880 and 9880 proofers. Mike Barnsley, BT&D reprographic and pre-press manager, explains that the OEM inks were going up in price on a regular basis, so when its proofing products supplier Image2output offered a cheaper option in the form of its own range of remanufactured Epson inks called ISOchrome, priced at up to 30% cheaper than the OEM, BT&D gave them a try. After testing extensively on one proofer, and with excellent results, they rolled out the inks on all of the proofing kit.Lance Britnell, director at Image2Output, says the savings come from not being to greedy with the margin and not having as many people in the supply chain – they take empty cartridges to their ink manufacturer, which refills them, and then they are sold back to the client. In quality and service, he says, the client should see no difference for their lower spend.The OEM will counter that using these cheaper third-party inks will be detrimental to quality and damaging to kit – and in switching you obviously relinquish service or warranty deals you have with the OEM. However, Britnell says the OEM’s are just scaremongering and that if you are careful in your choice of supplier, then the risk is minimal, if not non-existent. The same could apply for the litho inks market.Worryingly, though, however printers choose to deal with the rising cost of inks, it’s probable 2011 is going to force them to work even harder to offset the rising costs. http://www.migente.com/your_page/blog/view_posting.html?pid=2760511&profile_id=7287154&profile_name=albertobusch316&user_id=7287154&username=albertobusch316 || Experts writing the book on production: three publishing figures